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The Pioneer
A few nobmobbers rate a mention here: Minter and Chitts, and Mike Israel
Epic scenery! Probably a bit above my level, but you can always dream 
Antsonline, is this your next event?
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... be interesting to see how the proposed 4-day version stacks up against this year's 3-day one, which started with the queen stage. If it spread the vert of that day over two days, it'd just about be worth doing for the scenery alone. Mind you, 7 dry, sunny days on the South Island of NZ is unlikely to be repeated....
The scenery is great but the riding is hard, very hard. The Queen stage was tough and some of the descents scared the sh1t out of us. Relaxing in the lakes afterwards was like heaven and overall organisation was very good considering it was the first year of the event. The organizers bent over backwards to make it enjoyable for everyone - they even arranged transport back from Queenstown to the race village for Dicko after he was choppered out following a nasty fall.
Lach is right in terms of the weather - we were extremely lucky and I suspect the completion rate would have dropped materially had it been wet and cold. That said, we had some really warm days which also took their toll. Camaraderie at these events is what it is all about - we had a group of good friends that normally train together and also made a number of new ones through suffering together.
Lastly - make sure you do it with a very good mate with the similar goals (I did although at times with some of the moaning it felt like my wife was there with me
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